Business briefs

Wed, 2013-12-04 15:32

From Staff and Associated Press reports.

FFH faces loss in first month of fiscal year
FRANKLIN — Franklin Foundation Hospital financial reports indicate that the hospital had a $141,711 loss in October, the first month of its fiscal year, while the budget projected a $35,104 profit.
“We had a challenging month in terms of volume,” Chief Financial Officer Ron Bailey told Hospital Service District 1 commissioners Nov. 21 during their monthly meeting.
Gross patient revenue of $2.98 million was $265,931 or 8.19 percent under budget; total inpatient revenue of $778,676 was $260,875 or 25.09 percent under budget; and acute admissions were 8.39 percent below budget and acute patient days were under budget by 14.10 percent.
Inpatient acute revenues in the amount of $651,021 were $93,054 or 12.51 percent under budget; central/sterile supply, medical/surgical, surgery and anesthesia and respiratory therapy revenues were down by $52,250, $27,000, $20,800 and $10,000, respectively. Bailey said these decreases were partially offset by increased revenues in labor and delivery, nursery and pharmacy in the amounts of $14,500, $5,700 and $4,800 over budget, respectively.
Swing bed revenue in the amount of $127,655 was $167,821 or 56.80 percent under budget and swing bed admissions and patient days were below budget by 30.43 percent and 60.19 percent, respectively.
Swing bed room and board, pharmacy, central/sterile supplies, respiratory therapy and lab revenues were under budget $47,000, $44,600, $27,100, $16,800 and $12,800, respectively.
Hospital outpatient revenue of almost $1.89 million was $38,845 or 2.02 percent under budget and outpatient visits were 3.95 percent ahead of budget.
Pharmacy, surgery and anesthesia, central/sterile supply and blood supply revenues were under budget by $52,200, $18,000, $13,200 and $5,200, respectively. On the plus side, emergency room and lab revenues were ahead of budget by $17,600 and $9,200, respectively, and emergency room visits were 9.92 percent ahead of budget.
Total physician clinic and wound care revenues were ahead of budget by $33,789 or 11.09 percent and included orthopedics that was $19,900 over budget.
Net revenue for the month was $1.3 million and operating expenses totaled almost $1.9 million.

La. dredger
has $21M Corps contract in Texas
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The Pentagon says Weeks Marine Inc., of Covington, La., has a $21.2 million contract for pipeline dredging in the Houston area.
The company is to dredge 742,000 cubic yards from sections 1 and 2 of the Bayport Flare and nearly 4 million cubic yards from Houston Ship Channel sections 4 through 14 by Dec. 3, 2014.
A news release earlier this month said Weeks Marine was one of two companies submitting bids on the work for the Army Corps of Engineers in Galveston, Texas.

Amtrak route across state’s north studied
MINDEN (AP) — Louisiana is studying a plan for Amtrak passenger trains to cross north Louisiana, connecting Texas to Mississippi.
Department of Transportation and Development Secretary Sherrie LeBas said she’s ready to start, using $250,000 secured by state Rep. Roy Burrell of Shreveport.
Existing Kansas City Southern Railway tracks could connect Amtrak routes in Marshall, Texas, and Meridian, Miss., with possible stops in Shreveport, Ruston and Monroe. Passengers could continue west to Dallas and east to Atlanta.
Texas is studying a connection to Shreveport, part of a plan to add stops in east Texas and connect to the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport.
Minden and Webster Parish governments have passed resolutions supporting service.
One question, says Sibley Mayor Jimmy Williams, is whether busy Kansas City Southern tracks can accommodate Amtrak.

Dow Chemical looking to spin off, sell 40 plants
MIDLAND, Mich. (AP) — Dow Chemical is looking to spin off or sell about 40 manufacturing plants from its business as it continues to move away from cyclical commodity products.
The company said Monday that it expects those deals to happen within the next one to two years. Almost 2,000 workers will be affected by the moves. The businesses generate up to $5 billion of total annual revenue.
The assets include its U.S. Gulf Coast chlor-alkali and chlor-vinyl facilities in Plaquemine and Freeport, Texas, including Dow’s interest in the Dow Mitsui Chlor-Alkali joint venture in Freeport, Texas; its global chlorinated organics production plants in Freeport, Texas; Plaquemine and Stade, Germany; the global epoxy business, including assets in Freeport, Texas; Roberta, Ga.; Rheinmuenster, Germany; Pisticci, Italy; Baltringen, Germany; Stade, Germany; Gumi, South Korea; Zhangjiagang, China and Guaruja, Brazil; its brine and select assets supporting operations in Freeport, Texas, and Plaquemine and energy operations in Plaquemine.

La. exports steady despite China dip
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The World Trade Center of New Orleans says exports through Louisiana are holding steady even though its exports to China fell by one-fifth.
The $43.5 billion dollars in exports through the third quarter of the year put Louisiana eighth in the nation in export value.
The figure is 2 percent higher than the same time last year, although exports to China fell from $5.1 billion to $3.7 billion.
Machinery exports grew 51 percent, transportation equipment 45 percent and fabricated metal products 33 percent.
Louisiana’s principal export markets in the third quarter were Mexico, China and Japan. Shipments to Mexico rose 7 percent, from $4.5 billion to $4.8 billion.
The largest growth for exports through Louisiana was in shipments to France. The value of that trade zoomed up 65 percent to $1.4 billion, compared with $876 million in 2012.
Petroleum and coal products, agricultural products and chemicals were the top three exports from Louisiana in the third quarter.
Chemicals accounted for $6.8 billion of Louisiana’s exports at the close of the third quarter 2013, up slightly from $6.3 billion in the previous year.
The Port of New Orleans’ Napoleon Avenue Container Terminal has moved large amounts of chemicals, said port President and CEO Gary LaGrange. Billions of dollars in investments in Louisiana’s energy and chemicals industries should keep that growing, he said.
Although they were the state’s second largest exported commodity, trade of agricultural products declined 26 percent, from $11.9 billion in third quarter 2012 to $8.8 billion. Food products also dropped about 3 percent to $3.3 billion.
William Richardson, dean of Louisiana State University’s College of Agriculture, said that’s partly because the U.S. corn harvest was “exceptionally slow,” so corn exports to China, Japan, South Korea and other Asian countries fell.